Bigger than Gallipoli : War, History & Memory

The book is about how Australia 'remembers' the Second World War, focusing on the year-long commemorative program Australia Remembers 1934-1995, which took place all over Australia from small towns and local organisations to official national events.

For many of the Second World War generation this was the recognition that they had been yearning for.

The book analyses how the commemoration of fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war represented 'remembrance' visually, in text, and in spectacle, and makes some comparisons with similar events in Canada and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Its key themes of nostalgia, memory and commemoration are linked to explorations of how Australia as a nation seeks to (re)construct its identity, and the extent to which Australia Remembers contained new ways of representing previously ignored groups such as Australian Indigenous people and women.